Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-02-03
A DEADWOOD ROMANCE
How Hank WatrOus Sc
cured a Wife.
A WOMAN TO FIT DRESSES.
Disastrous Result of Hanks First
Attempt to Conclude Matri.
mOnial Alliance.

60At ever nehtu ok uaS ncsSA ySS WV"
printed by any of these story fellows.
Some of the boys gathered about the
speaker, and, after lighting their pipes.
expressed . willingness to listen. Old
John hemmed and hawed little, and
then began:
"You see. what I'm going to tell you
occurred here when the hills were COM
new. The romances in those
days were not gobbled up by the news
papers as soon as they are now. When
came in here white men were scarcer
than they arc now in Alaska, and, as
far IS women are concerned, you'd see
one once in a while. maybe, and maybe
you wouldn't. We hadn't any of us any
business here then, because the reserva-
ton hadn't been opened up as yet, but
the few of us who were willing to take
the chances of getting ourselves scalped
and hsmstrung by tho Injuns were not
disturbed very much. I'm speaking
now of the time thlt Crook was after
the Sioux. He had been up in Mon
tana, and not finding the savages there
he had circled around and followed the
trail of various parties which he hoped
to intercept. After o while bad weather
came on, and as the country was terribly
rough at that time, he and his command
suffered a great deal. They came into
this camp finally, ragged and hungry,
having lived on mule meat for about two
weeks, ond here they stayed for about
two weeks, getting their breath, as it
were. You can bet that they didn't
lind any fault with US white men for
being on an Indian reservation. They
took all that we had to offer, and we
offered the lads everything that the
country afforded.
COMING INTO CAMP.
s'Seyeral of Crooks men had already
served beyond their time, and when the
command reached Deadwood it was de-
cided TO let such of them as had served
the full term of their enlistment go
about their business. Several of the
troopers skipped out as soon as they
could, but a few remained here, think
ing that there was in anything else at
the moment. Iu this way We had quite
an addition to our camp, and, as the
pressuce of the army in this vicinity
did much to relieve the fears of the
average rustler, the new arrivals became
more numerous as time went by. Well,
what want to tell you is that one OF
the men from Crooks command was
Hank Watrous. as fine fellow as you'd
care to see in q month of Sundays.
He had been in the army five years,
and of course had seen . heap OF
service. Soldering in those days didn't
give u man much OF o chance to lie
around aud look pretty. When band
of regulars came to town they looked
like pirates, and felt that way, too,
reckon. Hank made himself agreeable
to my party, and as he was u likely
chap wa took him in. He could work as
cell a. he could fight, and he was
handy around the camp. Besides him
and me there were five others, and as
time wore on others still came in.
With one party came woman, the
wife of one OF the men, who called
himself Pete. We always knew her AZ
Pete's wife. She was a mighty smart
little woman, too. She didn't hand
sone much, but she didn't have to ir
those days. After awhile she got into
the habit of cooking for the crowd
and we all thought heap of her.
pETE's WIFE.
s'Pete and his wife had been in th,
camp about six weeks when what shoult
Pete do but blow his head off with
Winchester that he was fooling with
Nobody saw him do the job. and wheI
We found the body we thought at frs
that he had been killed by the Injuns
They were exceedingly liable to sucl
things in those days. But on exa,nin
ing the lay of the ground we found tha
the thing must have been an accident
Only one cartridge had been shot ofi
and as there was no reason to suppes
chat Pete was tired of his life, we re
turned a verdict that his death wa
accidental, one of those mysterious dis
pensations that you read about. W.
buried him in good shape. and as tn
woman said that she would stay with u
wekept on calling her Peteis wife. Abou
. month after this my friend Hank tolt
ma that he had been making up II
Pete's wife, and that she had promised
to marry him thirty days later. Thi
met my approval, and nobody else oh
.jected, SO that Hank made his prepara
tious accordingly. At first he sent owe
To Sydney for u couple of new dresses
and when they came can tell you the,
were mighty pretty. They fitted Pete
wife like glove, because they had bee
tried on one of them she looked might,
fin.. Now want to tell you something
"On the day set for the marrying-w
were going TO conduct the ceremon
-ourselves-Pete's wife vanished. Han
was about crazy, for he hadn't counte
ON anything OF this kind, and l wa
afraid that he would 60 out and shoe
his head off too. But he didn't. w
looked all over without finding a trac
of her.
HANK LEFT IN THE LURCH.
<'At first we thought that the Iu
juns might have got her, but that theor
was abandoned after u while, becaus
We could not find anywhere within
twenty miles of camp fresh trail. The
we came to the conclusion that she ha
just skipped. To save Hanks feeling
a little we told him that she probabl
had found out that she still though
too much Of Pete to marry again righ
away, and so we went ON trying to fol
get ell about her. That was in lS7f
Five years later l heard of Pete,s wifi
up in Montana and . year after that
saw her there. She was then we'll maj
ried and she told me that she skippe
out because she had concluded that sh
could do better. She found her way t
the track all alone, and though she wa
sorry to disappoint anybody, she ha
never regretted her decision.
'sWell, Hank kept the two dresse
for some time and said nothing. Finally
when the crowd began to come in, W.
noticed that he would take q great dea
Of Interest in every woman that ar
rived in the camp. Two or three timei
he got the dresses out and carried then
down town, but he always brought them
back again. Finally we got word that
ko IN ho v,,orr,a1 auA tbara